IRAQ TURNING POINT?

"I can't tell you how impressed I continue to be with the elite journalists in this country. After finding out that top reporters from The NY Times, The Washington Post and NBC all withheld information from the public about their leaders, I can only wonder what else they may be keeping back because of their cozy relationships, book deals, or political sympathies. This is a crisis in journalism. Matt Cooper was leaked to by Karl Rove in the summer of 2003 and he fought to keep from revealing his source. But he fulfilled his responsibility as a journalist by writing a story and it was the real story about what was going on. Here's the first paragraph of Cooper's first article on the subject back in 2003:

"Has the Bush Administration declared war on a former ambassador who conducted a fact-finding mission to probe possible Iraqi interest in African uranium? Perhaps.

"I don't know why all the other reporters who were being leaked this nasty bit of business didn't write articles with that lead, but they should have. As we all know, that was the story then and it's the story now. Instead it's only after the long arm of the law reaches into the newsrooms that we find out dozens of reporters, including some of the most famous and powerful, were involved in this little episode."

Post Political Editor John Harris has this to say about Woodward in an online chat:

"He is one of the giants of journalism, and is justifiably an institution at the Post. He is in the doghouse with Len Downie, and justifiably so, for not sharing his role in this matter. But even if he had been more forthcoming earlier with Len, it's not clear what this would have led to in terms of coverage. . . .

"He's definitely eating a turd sandwich on this episode, and he acknowledged that he should have done some things differently regarding his conversations with Post editors, and in public comments about the Fitzgerald investigation. But does anyone really thing that Woodward--with a 33-year record of breaking major stories and reporting fairly and aggressively on how government works in Washington--puts on 'kid gloves' with sources?"

While there are superficial similarities between Bob and Judy, says Slate's Jack Shafer , "The most significant difference between the two journalists is that Woodward has gotten it right--spectacularly right on many occasions--more often than any other working reporter. The Miller record, especially on the WMD front, isn't even in the same solar system.

"Setting Woodward's Watergate accomplishments aside, he deserves lasting respect for the way he revolutionized the Supreme Court beat with 1979's The Brethren (1979), which he wrote with Scott Armstrong. The institution was--and remains--more leak-proof than the CIA, and The Brethren was the first book to put a human face on a living Supreme Court and its decision-making ways. Veil (1987) captured the out-of-control cowboy that was spook-master William Casey. With nary an anonymous source, Woodward chronicled the life and death of John Belushi in Wired (1984). Although they flow as slowly as an ice-clogged river, The Commanders (1991), The Agenda (1994), Bush at War (2002), and Plan of Attack (2004) boast a thoroughness that you have to admire. Has anybody ever gotten as far inside a working presidential administration as Woodward?"

But, Shafer goes on to ask, "At what cost?"